Monday, 21 November 2016

God has reserved
an exclusive class of those who have a special relationship with Him. This
group of people are referred to as the apple
of His eyes. When such people pray they receive instant attention. What is
their secret? They came to a point when the flesh and all its ugly
characteristics are crucified, and the life of God is lived in all its
entirety. What is referred to as the fullness of God, cannot be clear to you
until flesh dies. You cannot enjoy the Almighty and share in His secret until
self is crucified. The deep things of God cannot mean anything to you until the
flesh is crucified.

The flesh is
stubborn. It can only be tamed by the cross. The Bible says,

“And he bearing
his cross went forth to a place called the place of the skull which is called
in the Hebrew tongue, Golgotha and in Greek, calvary” (John 19:17).

The scene
refereed to here took place on a mountain outside the city. The mountain looks
like a skull. The first lesson we learn from here is that when you succeed in
taking a man’s skull from his head, you have killed him.

Another lesson
is that crucifixion normally takes place at the outskirts of the city – an
undesirable place.

Crucifixion
entails going through shame, ridicule and pains.

Hence we
discover that most people do avoid it. The Bible says:

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I
live; yet not I , but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the
flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for
me”. (Gal. 2:20).

Again we come
across an example of crucifixion. Paul the apostel declared, without
fear or contradiction that he has been crucified with Christ, that the old man had died and that he had become completely
new in Christ. Paul was saying that what
took place in his life was not refurbishment. It was a total transformation. Paul
had died anda new man had emerged. How
did this happen?

Let’s look at
the Scripture again.

“Blotting out
the hand writing that was against us, which was contrary to us and took it out
of the way, nailing it to the cross”.
(Col. 2:14).

“And he that
taketh not his cross and followeth after me, is not worthy of me” (Matt. 10:38).

If you say that
you are a Christian and you have not taken your cross to follow Christ, you are not worthy. That means
that you are not qualified. In other words, you are disqualified. The bible
says:

“Then said Jesus
unto His disciples. If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and
take up his cross, and follow me”
(Matt. 16:24).

The Bible makes
us to understand that the issue of crucifixion cannot be dismissed by a wave of
the hand. It tells us again:

“And He said to them if any man will come after me,
let him deny himself and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23).

Mark, another Gospel writer, has preserved
the word of Jesus for us. In Mark
10:21, he writes:

“Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto
him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell what-so-ever thou hast, and give
it to the poor, and thou shall have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the
cross, and follow me”.

But what was the
man’s response? Let’s check it out in verse 22:

“And he was sad at that saying, and went away
grieved: for he had great possessions”.

Two
of the songs that changed my life when I gave my life to Christ goes thus.

Take up thy
cross, the saviour said,

If thou wouldest
my disciple be;

Deny thy self,
the world forsake,

And humbly
follow after me.

Take up thy
cross, let not its weight

Fill thy weak
spirit with alarm;

His strength
shall bear your spirit up,

And brace thine
heart, and nerve, thine arm.

Take up thy
cross, nor heed the shame,

Nor let thy
foolish pride rebel;

The Lord for
thee the cross endured

To save thy soul
from death and hell.

Take up thy
cross, and follow Christ

Nor think till
death to lay it down

For only he who
bears the cross

May hope to wear
the glorious crown.

Take up thy
cross, then in his strength

And calmly every
danger brave,

“Twill guide you
to a better home

And lead to
victory o’er the grave.

To thee, great
Lord, the One in Three,

All praise for
evermore ascend;

O grant us in
our home to see

The heavenly
life that knows no end.

O God, my heart
doth long for Thee;

Let me die, let
me die;

Now set my soul
at liberty

Let me die

To all the
trifling things of earth,

They’re now to
me of little worth,

My saviour
calls, I’m going forth,

Let me die.

Lord I must die
to scoffs and jeers

Let me die,
letme die;

I must be freed
form slavish fears

Let me die

Unto the world
and its applause,

To all its
customs, fashions, laws,

Of those who
hate the humbling cross,

Let me die.

When I am dead, then, Lord, to Thee

I will live, I will live.

My life, my strength my all to Thee

I will give, I will give.

So dead that no desire shall rise

To pass for good, or great, or wise,

In any but my saviour’s eyes;

Let me die, let me die.

To crucify the
flesh, therefore, you must deny yourself.You will take a journey to Golgotha
and get crucified. To be crucified means you are completely dead.No longer alive.

A brother
entered the bus and mistakenly stepped on a fellow passenger. Before he could
say ‘sorry’ to the aggrieved passenger, the man had given him a dirty slap.
Then everybody in the bus urged the brother to retaliate, except he was a
bastard. The brother smiled and apologized to the passenger. He said “I cannot slap himbecause my hands have been crucified with Christ”. The passengers
looked at him and rained abuses on him. that is a crucified man.

Dr. D.K. Olukoya....'You must bury flesh to ignite the glory of the cross'

The Cross…

The cross stands
at the center of Christianity. Without the cross the Christian life is
nonexistent. Whatever runs contrary to the cross is not part of the gospel.

Christianity
without the cross can be likened to a tree without fruit. The flesh does not
want to be disturbed, yet the flesh and the cross cannot co-exist, they are
contrary to one another. Man is always looking for respectability, but the
cross is the center of God’s glory.

The flesh loves
what is fashionable and glamorous, but the cross is crude, old fashioned and
ugly. Right through the history of the church, anytime the cross is rejected to
the background, darkness sets in. Remove the cross and you weaken the church.

The cross cannot
be forgotten or ignore. Even if all preachers refuse to preach about the cross,
that will not remove its centrality in Christianity.

The cross is the
soul of Christianity. It commands attention. There is something of an enigma in
the cross. The cross is a phenomenon.

The cross is a
mystery. It is the instrument of Christ’s death and the object of wonder
throughout all ages. It can never loose it’s power.

The power of God
resides in the cross. When Christ
was crucified on the cross, it was gruesome. The cross was first placed on His
shoulder as a burden. He carried it to the place of crucifixion. He surrendered
Himself for crucifixion. His two hands and two legs were nailed at the cross,
this was a symbol of suffering. Un believers even identify the cross as a
symbol of cross-road.

You cannot avoid
the cross and remain true to your conscience. I have made up my mind to
surrender everything I own to the Lord. You are free to decide to either ignore
or accept this message, but let me tell you right away, that you are going to
be held responsible for the consequences of your decision. As for me, I have
taken my decision more than twenty years ago, that as for me and my house, we
shall serve the Lord.

The cross is a
symbol of crises. It is also a symbol of choice. You have to make a personal
choice not to go to hell fire.

The cross is a
figure of frustration and adversities.

The cross is a
symbol of punishment and suffering. How convenient will you feel. If I ask you,
to spread your two arms for an hour or two. I am sure you will cry in pain.

The cross
typifies suffering and redemption from sin.

The cross
addresses the direction which means a lot to man. One, the cross goes backward
, it addresses the past; Two, the cross goes forward, it addresses the future.
Three, the cross goes inward, it addresses our innermost feelings. Four, it
goes outward, it points to what we must fight, ignore and what we must come to
terms with.

The cross is a
horrible instrument of torture. Aman
who is on the cross goes through a painful death. He dies slowly. Therefore any
man associated with the cross is regarded as a dead man.

In those days,
whenever any man was condemned to death on the cross, member of his family
would gather together and begin to cry, because their relative was going to die
in a very shameful manner. The cross terminates the transaction with the world.
The moment a man is taken out to die on the cross, everyone would begin to cry
and wail for him. some people would even accompanyhim to the cross knowing that, it was going to
be his last day on earth. No matter how sympathetic the crowd may be. It is
only the man who actually hangs on the cross who knows the shame, the ridicules
and the pains of crucifixion.

The cross is a
symbol of life through death, light through darkness, glory through shame and
redemption through death.

The flesh is the
place where God judges sin. There, God took sin and sinful flesh out of the
way.

The cross became
God’s instrument for handing over the flesh to die in disgrace and
dishonor.Jesus gave us an example. He showed the only way to please the
Father—the way of crucifixion. Many love the miracles of Jesus but few are ready to bear the cross of the Lord Jesus. Relatives of those who were
nailed to the cross always felt miserable. The cross was equivalent to a social
stigma.

Dr. D.K. Olukoya wants Christians to be crucified with the Cross to purge them of the devil's poison

Avoid the Cross & Keep the Poison…

The cross is the
only thing that can siphon the poison of the old serpent out of our lives.
Through the cross, the venom of the serpent is rendered null and void. A man
who has been to the cross is free from the poison of the serpent. The serpent
no longer has any power over him. But for a man who refused to be crucified,
the poison of the old serpent will continue to work in his blood stream. Avoid
the cross and keep your satanic poison. Push away the cross and live with the
poison of the serpent. The cross is God’s strategy of rendering the devil
impotent.

The cross was
God’s instrument for removing the nature of the devil out of our lives. The
cross is the terminating point of the old Adamic
nature. At the cross, all the sinful habits, sicknesses, disobedience, bad
behaviours, evil traits and so on are terminated. The cross is the gate way to
prosperity, wealth, signs, wonders and miracles.

The cross is the
power of God. When you get to the cross, therefore, all carnal substitutes will
fade away. You must take a trip to Golgotha,
if you must have power with God and man.

When you are
crucified, the world will shout, “These
are the men turning the worldupside
down” Of course, this is necessary.

Have you had
this experience? Have you become a captive of the cross? Have you embraced the
message of a shameful death?

Dr. D.K. Olukoya....A Deliverance Minister extra-ordinary

Generally
speaking, the cross is reserved for the worst criminals. They are usually
stripped naked and hanged on the cross. Jesus
was numbered with notorious criminals. Can you imagine that the Saviour of the
world was naked on the cross, just to pay the price for your salvation? He was,
indeed put to open shame and ridicule. That is why the Bible reveals that the Roman soldier had to cast lots to see
who was going to claim Jesus’ dress.

Again to hang on
the tree was to be reckoned as an accursed person on earth and in heaven. A man
who dieson the cross is both rejected,
as it were, in heaven and on earth. Thus, a crucified man is judged as unfit to
live either in heaven or on earth.

Let us think
about the life of Jesus again. When
He was born, angels announced His birth. Great men went to see Him. Throughout
His ministry, until when He was in the garden
of Gethsemane angels ministered to Him. But the moment He was hanged on the
cross, angels deserted Him. The Roman soldiers ridiculed Him, they mocked and
laughed at Him. There was nobody on His side. The road to the cross was painful
and tortuous.

Dr. D.K. Olukoya, Author "Overpowering Witch Craft"

The cross is the
point where God’s will and your will cross each other. It is the place where
you lay down your life for Jesus.
Nobody will take your life from you by force, you have to voluntarily lay it
down yourself. Your cross is not a particular problem or sickness.

Your cross is
that place where you take a decision that you will no longer please yourself.
The only people who have genuine authority over Satan are those who choose to
die on the cross.

Here is the
greatest news of all the ages. It was on the cross that Satan was defeated. It
was there that he was completely disgraced, and destroyed. If you want to
reign, therefore, in life, be crucified!

(Excerpts from the book “Overpowering Witchcraft” by Dr.
D.K.Olukoya, Founder/General
Overseer of Mountain of Fire & Miracles
Ministry International)